the fire for some minutes before I could fight down the fresh
tears that were welling up and let those which veiled my
eyesight scatter away. I was conscious how silently the two
women waited upon me. I had a sense even then of the sympathy
they were giving. I knew they served me with a respect which
would have done for an Eastern princess; but I said nothing
hardly, nor they, that night.

If the tears came when I was alone, so did sleep too at last;
and I waked up the next morning a little revived. It was a
cool morning! and my eyes opened to see Margaret on her knees
making my fire. Two good oak sticks were on the fire dogs, and
a heap of light wood on the floor. I watched her piling and
preparing, and then kindling the wood with a splinter of light
wood which she lit in the candle. It was all very strange to
me. The bare painted and varnished floor; the rugs laid down
here and there; the old cupboards in the wall; the unwonted
furniture. It did not feel like home. I lay still, until the
fire blazed up and Margaret rose to her feet, and seeing my
eyes open dropped her curtsey.

"Please, missis, may I be Miss Daisy's girl?"

"I will ask aunt Gary," I answered; a good deal surprised.

"Miss Daisy is the mistress. We all belong to Miss Daisy. It
will be as she say."

I thought to myself that very little was going to be "as I
said." I got out of bed, feeling terribly slim-hearted, and